Monday, October 6, 2014

Anya Richards & The Long Haul

How many times have I said I’m giving up
this writing gig? Too many to count. Sales slump? I’m done. Ideas seem silly?
It’s over. The words won’t come? Clearly I’ve lost the knack.

Well… I’m still here ain’t I?

The truth is, if you have the need to tell
a story, you really can’t give up. The tales bubbling in your head won’t let
you. The drive to create won’t let you. But here’s the kicker…

There’s more to it.

Do you know “that guy” or “that girl”? The
one who always has everyone around them riveted at parties, as they tell story
after story about what they’ve done or heard? They’re storytellers of a type—a
kind with a long and glorious history. They’re the troubadours of our time, and
long after they’re gone people will say, “Do you remember that story so-and-so
used to tell?” But no one will ever be able to tell that story the way they
did. No one. And those stories you want to write down? No one will ever be able
to tell them the way you can.

Yet, maybe you’re afraid to try. Maybe it’s
not something you’ve ever done before and you think, “I may suck at it.”

Well, you might, but can I point something
out to you? When you were a baby and tried to walk, I almost guarantee you
sucked at it. You fell over, sat on your butt—probably hard—had to grab stuff
to stop from tumbling over. Someone held your hands to help you up and give you
some balance, but you fell over again once they let you go. Then one day, after
stumbling, falling, crying and maybe even bleeding, you started walking on your
own. Then you got stronger and, to your parents’ mingled pride and chagrin,
started running. You never looked back after that. The same goes for everything
we’ve had to learn—how to speak, do mathematics, draw—every- and anything.

So, don’t be afraid. The want is the thing.
If you want to write, get started. Maybe you have a natural talent and the book
will be awesome, you never know! But if you’re like the
rest of us, it’ll need something more—a little help. When I started, people
loved the stories themselves, but there were craft problems. I got critiques
and took some writing courses and kept at it. I started getting “good’
rejections, those where the editors told me exactly why they wouldn’t acquire
the stories, and that told me the areas I still needed to work on. Eventually I
got that first “Yes” and I was walking! Twenty-plus yeses later, I still
consider myself learning and hopefully growing…

And that leads to my last piece of advice…

Don’t stop. Don’t get stuck. Keep your mind
open to the possibilities of growth and change. Keep moving forward instead of
staying in one safe or known place. Keep going…and suddenly you’ll find
yourself running the writing marathon, and winning.

Multi-published
author Anya Richards lives with her husband, youngest kid, a mutt, and two cats
that plot world domination one food bowl at a time.The humans support her writing while the animals see her preoccupation
as a goad.

Insatiably curious and irreverent, Anya
loves history, music, the sea and a good rum punch. To learn more drop by
Anya’s websitemake friends with her on Facebook or follow her onTwitter.

His seductive rhythm calls to
the passionate soul hiding within…

Jane Rollins is anything but plain, but to
keep her position as housekeeper to a wealthy family, she is content to hide
her beauty behind a dull façade. This deception has become second-nature to
her—until dance master Sergio Fontini waltzes into her life.

While the other inhabitants of the house see him as a foreigner and beneath
their notice, Jane sees strength, barely leashed power, and an aura of iron
control—an irresistible, arousing combination.

Sergio sees through Jane’s disguise to the woman beneath, and the desires in
her veiled gaze call to him like the utterly irresistible strains of a
beautiful symphony. The circumstances couldn’t be worse, for seducing her will
endanger both their livelihoods.

Yet there are lessons he cannot resist teaching her, steps of a dance that
crescendos to her final surrender…

Product Warnings

A deliciously seductive Italian unmasks a supposedly respectable Victorian
woman and leads her into a lust-filled pas de deux.

Thank you all for stopping by and commenting! I think like most writers getting the words down is a compulsion for me, and I'm glad to see others have the same "problem"! And definitely keep growing, because that's what keeps the writing fresh and exciting both to us authors and also the readers.

Thank you all for coming by, and I'm so glad my analogy was helpful. Whether it's a fear of failure or of success, fear definitely can cripple any creative soul, but all of life is a process of growing, learning and fighting our demons. Doing those things every day will see us through!

And Michelle, I'm sure if poor Jane had a mother to guide her, she'd have given her the same advice. "Italian? Dancer? Sergio? No! Stay away from him!!"